my next project:HELP

this place is a gold mine for posing a question and getting great answers. heres another.as we roll toward another great football season im always pissed no matter how well i handicapp a game theres always a key piece of info i seem to miss. for instance theres a tidbit about notre dame wearing thier uniforms from 1949 and this seems to be inspiration for them. my question....is there a website out of the mainstream that one can go to get stuff like that the week of a game that isnt sportsline,espn.cnnsi.gameday facts,notes etc that only an astute handicapper would know about? thanks for your help guys. ~6killer

Here are two suggestions.

One is google news.

For example, the status of okafor for the Final Four is a big question right now.

I just went to google.com, clicked on the "News" tab, entered "okafor" and came up with this.

.....Huskies coach Jim Calhoun said Okafor was bumped hard in practice. Calhoun said the injury was similar to the stinger Okafor got against Alabama in the Phoenix Regional final, when a hard foul jarred his neck and sent a stinging pain down his arm.

''We fully expect that he may take it easier tomorrow, but will fully practice again on Friday,'' Calhoun said......

Unlike regular google, the news google is updated almost constantly from 4500 sources.If there is an ongoing issue that you are concerned about, you can even sign up for an instant "news alert" that is automaticlly e-mailed to you when something develops. The trick is knowing what key words to put in. If you're worried about an injury to Smith, better put in extra words like the team name. Another trick is to also put a phrase like "expected to play" in there, using the quotation marks.

Second suggestion: Fantasy Sports sites. There was one site I followed a couple of years ago that had "stringers" for every pro FB team that wrote extensive reports each week on their assigned team. Even though the perspective of these writers is primarily individual performances, there were a few good stringers who had good comments to make on expected offensive and defensive strategies. Since these writers were not mainstream reporters, you were more often to get down and dirty advice and comments, without the writer having to worry about "balance" and being nice to individual players since they might be interviewing them next week.

Anybody else got ideas out there?

ill check that out jdodger. theres got to be a place to get the same stuff cbs or fox throws out on gamedays that the public doesnt usually know. of course its usually stuff you see once the game starts and a good researcher gets it for the broadcasters. so ill take all suggestions guys. i want to use this as part of my football handicapping arsenal.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by jdodger:
Second suggestion: Fantasy Sports sites. There was one site I followed a couple of years ago that had "stringers" for every pro FB team that wrote extensive reports each week on their assigned team. Even though the perspective of these writers is primarily individual performances, there were a few good stringers who had good comments to make on expected offensive and defensive strategies. Since these writers were not mainstream reporters, you were more often to get down and dirty advice and comments, without the writer having to worry about "balance" and being nice to individual players since they might be interviewing them next week.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

You're also likely to get misinformation, second-hand rumors and general garbage from these "reporters."
No offense -- sometimes the rumormill is accurate. But no way is my money going to be used on faith of their accuracy.